undefined | Better HN

0 pointsjasode10y ago0 comments

>No interviewing software developer prefers an extra 6 hours of on-site interview to an off-site coding challenge.

Sure, Google/Microsoft have the legendary "6 hour" marathon interviews with multiple teams with lunch in the middle but for smaller scale of companies, they don't have bandwidth to mess around with all-day interviews. It's ~2 hours. In this thread, it shows I'm not the only one who prefers onsite whiteboard over homework projects so the "no developer prefers" claim is too absolutist.

>The problem developers have with "homework problems" is really a problem with bullshit companies that won't provide timely feedback on their submission.

Regardless if the feedback is received within 10 minutes or 10 days of submission, if I apply to 4 companies, I don't want to do 4 homework projects. I simply don't. At least with 4 onsite interviews, I see glimpses of the office and meet the interviewers.

0 comments

tptacek10y ago

This is just not true. I talk to interviewing developers every day, and very few of them are interviewing at Google.

The final round of on-site interviews usually eats a whole day, and is preceded by a whole battery of time-wasting phone interviews, which themselves eat as much time as a coding challenge and often involve coding with someone else over the phone or Skype.

There are companies that are not Google that have multiple rounds of on-site interviews.

pyb10y ago

Are they not only getting very desperate candidates ?

tptacek10y ago

No. Everyone interviews this way. The very most marketable candidates leverage personal brand and connections to dodge a lot of it, but you have to be good at sales to do that.

pyb10y ago

Perhaps in the US, but here in the UK, in my experience, companies have shorter onsite interviews. (except for the American ones...)

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 comments

tptacek10y ago

This is just not true. I talk to interviewing developers every day, and very few of them are interviewing at Google.

There are companies that are not Google that have multiple rounds of on-site interviews.

pyb10y ago

Are they not only getting very desperate candidates ?

tptacek10y ago

No. Everyone interviews this way. The very most marketable candidates leverage personal brand and connections to dodge a lot of it, but you have to be good at sales to do that.

pyb10y ago

Perhaps in the US, but here in the UK, in my experience, companies have shorter onsite interviews. (except for the American ones...)

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse